A gallery of pics from the trip to Dubai in early November with Julie, Eric, Evelyn and Charlotte.
Fall Dubai Trip
Charlotte’s Baptism
Earlier this week was neice Charlotte’s Baptism on the Shattuck-St. Mary’s campus where Crystal and I met, began our teaching careers and were married. Â We hadn’t been back there in over a decade and it was great to see the campus and the positive trajectory the school is on. Â Enjoy the pictures!
Nora and Crystal at the Faribault Monument
Chapel of the Good Shepard on Shattuck Campus
Filing in for the Baptism
An HDR shot of people entering the chapel for the baptism
Julie, Eric, Evelyn and Charlotte at the Baptism
Ben, Crystal, Kai and Nora in front of the altar where Ben and Crytal were married 17 years ago
An HDR shot of the interior of the Chapel of the Good Shepard
The whole group at Charlotte's Baptism. Not pictured is Father Doyle who performed the ceremony.
Nora outside the chapel. Dress by Grandma, boots selected by Nora.
Art Jacobs and Ron Miller outside the chapel.
Ellen Jacobs and Karen Jacobs outside the Chapel.
Crystal, Kai and Nora at the monument outside the Chapel
Nora and Charlotte either dancing or playing golf on the parade field. Can't tell which.
Eric and Cathleen in front of Shumway.
Kai coaches Evelyn.
Random Vacation Pics
Here are a few picture from the last few days. Â It include a visit of the Julie, Evelyn and Charlotte to Chez Danbury along with a few other random pics.
A shot of one of the local arachnids. I would have included my thumb in the picture for scale but I value it too much.
Nora on the SS Honey Badger.
Kai poses with an interesting caterpillar found on the deck. The spines and bright colors are probably only a bluff.
Riding bikes on county road FF.
Kai and Nora playing at Blueberry Junction. It seems like safe equipment but keep in mind that underneath Nora...that is all lava infested with lava-gators.
A freshly fallen leaf at Blueberry Junction.
It was pouring rain but the kids still wanted to get a photo of themselves with the largest Leinenkugels Lounger in all of Burnett County.
Kai and Crystal
Evelyn scouts the horizon
Cooking hot dogs on the campfire
The fire brigade douses the campfire.
Evelyn and Nora
It is hard to take a good picture from a moving boat with an iPhone but here are Kai and Nora enjoying some tubing on Bass Lake.
A deer and fawn as seen from South Shore Drive
Spooner Rodeo Parade!
Yesterday was the Spooner Rodeo Parade!  We love going to it every year – in our opinion it is the perfect small town parade – we always leave it feeling red, white and blue.  Good clean fun and dirty tootsie rolls picked up off the street!
Gearing up for the parade
Ellen and Art at the parade - not just grandparents - Super-Grandparents! (and great parents 🙂
Charlotte with a front row seat
Getting ready for the parade to start.
Since it was a Rodeo parade Nora wanted to look the part.
Julie at the parade
Evelyn peeks around a chair
The chocolate milk truck was a hit
Nora trailed along for a while hoping for milk but came away empty handed. Almost ruined her day.
Kai tried to give her his chocolate milk but rule number 1 is never take charity from your brother.
Charity from a cousin is OK though and Nina gave Nora a milk and all was right in the world. Bear in mind that nobody drank thier milk.
Kai did a great job of helping the littler folks collect sufficient tootsie rolls.
Kai and Nora
Julie and Charlotte
Another shot of Julie and Charlotte. Yee Haw!
Natural Bridge Caverns
One of the side trips that we took in Texas was to Natural Bridge Caverns. We took the “easy” tour with the kids but it was still a fair trek and a stunning. It was a chilly day up top but warm and humid year round in the caves. Stunning display of all things subterranean.
Dinosaur
Kai, Evelyn and Nora on top of the dinosaur at Natural Bridge Caverns.
Natural Bridge Caverns
Another shot of the kids outside the guest center.
Waiting for the tour to start
Nora took a group picture while we waited for the discovery tour to begin.
Crystal in the cavern
Kai the photographers
Kai loves taking pictures
Going Down
The second largest room
This was the second largest room we were in. Natural Bridge is quite a cavern complex.
A muddy pond
In the amazing "throne room" Kai zeroed in on a muddy pond as the most intersting feature.
San Antonio
We just got back from a 3 day trip to San Antonio to visit Aunt Julie, Uncle Eric and the cousins Evelyn and Charlotte.  It had been a while since we’d seen Evelyn and it was our first visit with baby Charlotte.  It was a wonderful visit with the Lacoutures and we packed a lot into 3 days not least of which was a visit to Randolph AFB to look at the jets where Uncle Eric is a flight instructor. Here is the first set of pictures.
Remember the Alamo
A family picture in front of the Alamo.
Nora and Evie
Nora and Evelyn in the Alamo courtyard.
Holding hands
Kai and Nora were eager to be good helpers for Evelyn on the steps.
River Cruise
Nora and Evelyn holding hands on the Riverwalk Cruise.
Flight Lesson
Uncle Eric gives Kai the basics of the cockpit of a T38.
Nora ready for takeoff
Nora in a T38
Group Picture
Nora, Uncle Eric and Kai in front of a T38
Nora and Evelyn
Nora takes a picture with the big Nikon. She photgraphed every inch of that display cabinet.
A Boy and his iPad
Kai relaxes with his favorite passtime.
At the Lacouture Residence
Kai, Evelyn, Nora and Lucy at the very impressing Chez Lacouture.
Aunt JuJu
Julie and Willa
In the rain
There was a light drizzle which was too much for Nora to resist and a good excuse for Evelyn to wear her raincoat.
Cleaning out the fridge
With departure back to Saudi Arabia iminent it was time to clean out the fridge and freezer. Art, Ellen, Julie, Eric and Evelyn all showed up to help out the cause. We had a wonderful meal of steak and salmon.
It was been an excellent winter visit to Danbury but we’re looking forward to getting back to Saudi where it will be a bit warmer (transcontinental flights not withstanding).
Enjoy a few more random pictures from the end of the trip.
A Visit With Uncle Jim
Yesterday we were able to drive across the causeway and spend a day visiting with Uncle Jim, Aunt Julie, Uncle Eric and Evelyn as well as a shipmate of Jim’s that joined him. It a typical hot and humid day in Bahrain but a dip in the pool was nice and it was the first time Jim, Ben and Julie have been in the same place for quite some time!
Grandma Ellen and her Three Grandkids
Recently Grandma Ellen flew in to Bahrain to visit baby Evelyn. By chance she was on the first set of flights to go right through European airspace so a lucky break there.
On her birthday we were able to head over and fix a nice meal for everyone and, while she was jet lagged, it was her first day with all three grandkids in the same spot.  Enjoy the pictures.
Baby Evelyn was wonderful. She slept or cooed the whole time.
I’m sure she is always like that 😉
Baby Evelyn
Baby Evelyn is over a week old but we didn’t get our first look at her until we visited this weekend. She is an absolutely precious baby!  Enjoy the pictures.
